Barry Silbert cashes on Ethereum Classic price rise

Former Wall Street investment banker who invests in distress assets bought Ethereum Classic at the price of $0.50 per coin seventeenth months ago and the currency is now trading at more than $30.

Ethereum Classic has even seen highs of as much as $47 previously, meaning it increased in price more than Bitcoin.

Silbert is also CEO of Digital Currency Group, or DCG, whose subsidiary Grayscale launched a private investment. However, fund that tracks Ethereum Classic price and donates part of fees. Thus, to developing technology behind the cryptocurrency.

DCG now manages assets worth more than $3 billion, up from $164 million at the start of the year. This is according to a tweet from Silbert on December 12.

He has been vocal on Twitter promoting digital coins own by his company, even advising holders about the coins. However, his social media postings about the price of Ethereum Classic and the company into legal problems as two security says Reuters that the posting and “pro-tip” could raise red flags with regulators who enforce federal securities and commodities laws and rules that prohibit price manipulation even if the digital coins are not considered securities.

Silbert said last month that he was highly sensitive on rules governing financial markets and his company was “subject to anti-fraud provisions and insider trading and … all those types of things.”

“I would never make a recommendation,” he said. “I’ve never given price predictions.”

The statements by the attorneys come at a time when regulators are looking at possibilities of dealing with cryptocurrencies.

On October, he shared his top ten predictions on Bitcoin at a DCG’s annual Bitcoin & Blockchain Summit. Among the many predictions, he said the coin would become more accessible to retail and institutional investors via ETF(s). Since that cross border payments/remittances using Bitcoin will hit $1 billion run rate, and that the price of Bitcoin would be “higher” by end of 2017.

David Kariuki is a journalist who has a wide range of experience reporting about modern technology solutions including cryptocurrencies. A graduate of Kenya's Moi University, he also writes for Hypergrid Business, Cryptomorrow, and Cleanleap, and has previously worked for Resources Quarterly and Construction Review magazines.